Sachin Tendulkar, the legendary Indian batter, has unveiled his four semi-final picks for the Cricket World Cup 2023 tournament. Tendulkar had carried out the ICC World Cup trophy in the middle before the opening match between New Zealand and England in Ahmedabad.
“It was a surreal experience to carry that trophy out on the field. We ended up playing here, a quarter-final against Australia, and that night was a special night for us. To come back here, same stadium, 12 years down the line.
Something nice has happened actually. Before 2011, no host nation had won the tournament. Post that, all home nations have won. India’s hosting so, keeping those fingers crossed,” Tendulkar told ICC.
The World Cup winner believes that India can repeat their historic effort on home soil from 2011.
“I hope so because our team is playing good cricket, and if the team continues to keep things simple and stick to basics, they have the ammunition. We’ve got a strong batting line-up, a very good all-round bowling attack, we have good balance,” he added.
Then Tendulkar named the four teams he thinks can make it into the semi-finals.
“India without any doubt. We have a very, very good, balanced team. So is the case with Australia, I feel they have a balanced team. The third one I would say would be England. England again is a very strong team, with a combination of experience and some new faces.
My fourth team would be New Zealand. They have played the finals in 2015 and 2019. If you look at their track record, New Zealand in world championships have always done well and I see them getting to the semis,” he said.
New Zealand has already started strongly, by defeating defending champions England soundly by 9 wickets in the opening match.
(ICC inputs)
